Blog

Those of you who have been to the Life Enrichment Center over the past few months may have noticed the caution tape and large trenches on your left as you drove in and wondered “What is going on?”

Don’t worry, it wasn’t a major accident or small scale disaster. Those giant holes were a part of our continued effort to make improvements around the site.

Back when the campground was installed at the Life Enrichment Center, most RVs and trailers were smaller then they are today. As rigs got bigger,so did their power needs and our 1970s campground was no longer able to provide many our guests and Workampers with the full amount of power their RVs needed. So, two years ago, with the help of donations from many of our Workampers, we began the process of upgrading some of our pull-through sites from 30 amp to 50 amp. And now, this year, we have continued that effort. Once the city signs off on all the work that has been done, we will have an entire row of sties that can provide 50 amp power to our guests.

One of the new 50 amp pedestals

In addition to upgrading the power in parts of the campground, work was also done to make some of our more secluded sites useable to more guests. Our staff spent many days clearing out these campsites behind the pavilion. At the same time, they ran sewer lines to some of those sites and upgraded the eletric to 50 amp so that trailers and smaller RVs, in addition to tent campers, can now enjoy these sites that are a little more out of the way and off the main road of the LEC.

And in the last big bit of news of Life Enrichment Center Campground upgrades, work will start shortly to begin the process of enclosing the Ivan Marx Pavilion in the campground. We received a sizeable donation from the LEC Workampers that will allow us to begin work on the pavilion at the end of this month!

Ivan Marx Pavilion

2015 LEC Workampers

As the years have passed and the needs of our guests have changed, we have realized that our screened pavilion, just like our lower amperage sites, no longer serves our guests in all the ways we’d like for it to. The pavilion serves many functions throughout the year: In summer and fall months, it is used by our guests and campers as a meeting space, a dining area and more. In the winter months, it serves as a central hub for our Workampers, who use the space for morning devotions, social gatherings, movie nights, pot lucks, the occasional pickleball game and as a general daily hangout space. And in the spring time, the Florida Conference Women’s Retreats even use it as a workout space. It is our hope that this upgrade will allow us to serve all of these groups better and potentially find some new ways to meet our guest’s needs too.

The plan for enclosure is to begin by replacing the old screened windows with real windows and building in the walls to provide better insulation. This will let us to then condition the space, allowing for a more comfortable gathering place in both the summer and winter months.

Throughout all of these upgrades, it is our hope that we will be able to preserve the rich character and history that exists within the Ivan Marx Pavilion. The plan is for the beautiful wooden beams and ceiling to stay, giving the space both a slight rustic feel and a glimpse into its past. We want to honor what the space was, while still being able to modern parts of it so as to better serve our guests today.

If you are interested in being apart of our efforts to upgrade our spaces so that we can continue to enrich lives in this natural setting, you can donate by clicking here.